You can actually flip around the 16 channels yourself, if you really want to hear one of the all-time great rock masterpieces come out of the mouth of a unctuous game-show host or a cat in a cheerful kids' cartoon.

It's an audacious concept, ingeniously executed. But it's a horrible thing to do to "Like a Rolling Stone." When Dylan originally sang "How does it feel?", I'm pretty sure the answer he was looking for wasn't "numb."

Dylan didn't make the video himself, of course, but it does have his blessing. He posted it on his web site, bobdylan.com, Tuesday, in conjunction with the release of a new boxed set of old material, and with the headline: "Bob Dylan's 'Like a Rolling Stone' Released As Groundbreaking Interactive Video."

"We're forever looking for compelling, creative ways to distinguish our artists and their music from the din," said Adam Block, president of Dylan's label, Sony Music/Legacy Recordings, in an article on the web site. "The Interlude treatment of “Like a Rolling Stone” provides us with a unique, playful, highly engaging platform from which we can reach — and ideally attract — Dylan fans from across the spectrum."

Most of the press so far has been positive. Gavin Edwards, writing on rollingstone.com, called it a "tour de force" and "one of the best music videos of 2013." Devon Maloney, on wired.com, raved that it's "pretty much the best thing ever."

Forgive me for not gushing. "Like a Rolling Stone" is a song about someone lashing out — at a rich phony, brought low by circumstance, and, by extension, all the useless, outdated aspects of society that need to be eradicated. Released in 1965, in the midst of the cultural storm that was the '60s, it's a song of its moment. But it's still a thrilling, cathartic listen after all these years. (Admittedly, it's also a bit of a self-righteous rant, when you think about it.)

Some will argue that the video is meant to make the song seem even more universal, by showing how that kind of rage lurks under the surface of every corner of society. But I don't see it. To me, the video just neuters the song — except when you turn to the channel that has Dylan himself singing the song live, in 1966. To hear such a monumental, intensely personal piece of art turned into the equivalent of sonic wallpaper isn't some kind of ironic triumph. It's just grotesque.

When Bruce Springsteen inducted Bob Dylan into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988, he talked about hearing "Like a Rolling Stone" on the radio for the first time, when he was 15. He said he rushed out to buy the single, and then the album it was on, "Highway 61 Revisited," and listened to it for weeks. He said Dylan's voice made him feel "irresponsibly innocent"; he felt Dylan was "a guy that had the guts to take on the whole world," and that Dylan made him feel that he could do that, too.

It's hard to imagine anyone getting something similar out of the new "Like a Rolling Stone" video. It is possible, though, to imagine people thinking to themselves, "That's kinda cool," and hitting a button to retweet it or share it on Facebook, and then moving on to the next distraction.